Joseph DeLappe Proves Money Is Power By Imprinting Bills With Drones

Specializing in digital media, artist and professor Joseph DeLappe boasts a diverse background. While his portfolio features seemingly traditional experience in painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and curatorial work, it also presents more inventive undertakings, titled “interventions/actions.” Spanning social media experiments and fake newspaper articles, this distinctive body of work is entirely political, with the most recent project, In Drones We Trust, featuring paper money as its platform.

Described as a “crowd sourced, participatory rubber stamp currency intervention,” InDrones We Trust calls for volunteers all across America to brand their bills with a tiny stamp depicting an MQ1 Predator Drone. DeLappe explains:

The idea came after closely examining U.S. currency – all but the $1 dollar bill feature a pastoral depiction of a notable government building or monument on the back of the bills, albeit with lonely, empty skies. It seems appropriate, considering our current use of drones in foreign skies, to symbolically bring them home to fly over our most notable patriotic structures.

Subtle enough to blend in with their printed surroundings but graphic enough to stand out, the colorful marks stamped on the notes succeed as both an aesthetic addition and as a political statement. By adorning paper currency with these controversial and heavily symbolic imprints, DeLappe is able to both stealthily spread his message and get his art into circulation—literally. (Via Vandalog)

To join the cause and put your money where your mouth is, get your own drone stamp here!